TINSLEY ELLIS
''MIDNIGHT BLUE''
JANUARY 13 2014
51:16
01 - If The River Keeps Rising/3:52
02 - Mouth Turn Dry/4:57
03 - Surrender/5:19
04 - It's Not Funny/4:24
05 - See No Harm/4:28
06 - The Only Thing/3:22
07 - Peace And Love/4:42
08 - Harder To Find/6:41
09 - That's My Story/6:42
10 - Kiss Of Death/7:09
All Tracks By Ellis
Tinsley Ellis/Guitar, Vocals
Kevin McKendree/Organ, Piano
Ted Pecchio/Bass Acoustic & Electric
Lynn Williams/Drums, Percussion
REVIEW
By Thom Jurek
Something happened to Tinsley Ellis' sound when he began his Heartfixer Music label. First there was the all-instrumental Get It! in 2013, that focused on the many sounds that make up the guitarist's arsenal. Sure electric blues was at the root, but hard rock, surf, R&B, and even pop played a role in its creation. The sound was warm, yet lacked none of the bite that Ellis had become famous for. Midnight Blue, Get It!'s follow-up, evidences the bluesman's return to more familiar terrain. The ten-song program commences with "If the River Keeps Rising," where Ellis comes out of the gate playing acoustic blues. His throaty baritone ominously offers its metaphorical warning through the first verse before the band comes careening in à la Led Zep's "When the Levee Breaks." It's loud, proud, and nasty. Ellis' slide work is spare but stinging. "Mouth Turn Dry" is modern electric blues driven not only by guitar but Kevin McKendree's rave-up B-3. "Surrender" is an emotive soul-blues that showcases just how fine a singer Ellis is when he wants to be. It also possesses a bumping bassline from Ted Pecchio (one of many), a cut-time shuffle by Lynn Williams (whose grooves throughout this album are infectious), and shimmering Rhodes and B-3 work from McKendree. Ellis' fills and solo cut the track wide open. It's a slow burner, but a deep one. Other highlights include the Ray Charles-inspired "See No Harm" and the crystalline yet biting, B.B. King-influenced "Peace and Love" (that distinguishes itself with a unique use of the wah-wah pedal). While "Harder to Find" begins with an acoustic piano, it starts to throb Hendrix-style with psych effects while remaining a 12-bar blues. "That's My Story" is a sonic bonfire; a funky, dirty boogie à la early ZZ Top. The set closes on the simmering "Kiss of Death," a slow blues that reveals Ellis and band's commitment to the Chicago Blues. It displays gorgeous melodic playing and a refusal to indulge in obviousness and exquisite taste. Midnight Blue is solid top to bottom, and is the finest studio album since 2005's The Hard Way.
BIOGRAPHY
By Steve Huey
A hard-rocking, high-voltage blues guitarist most often compared to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Tinsley Ellis is hardly one of the legions of imitators that comparison might imply. Schooled in a variety of Southern musical styles, Ellis draws not only from fiery Vaughan-style blues-rock, but also Texas bluesmen like Freddie King and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, the soulful blues of B.B. King, the funky grit of Memphis soul, and numerous other electric bluesmen. Ellis has been praised in many quarters for the relentless, storming intensity of his sound, and criticized in others for his relative lack of pacing and dynamic contrast (he's also been dubbed a much stronger guitarist than vocalist). Yet no matter which side of the fence one falls on, it's generally acknowledged that Ellis remains a formidable instrumentalist and a genuine student of the blues.
Ellis was born in Atlanta in 1957, and spent most of his childhood in southern Florida. He began playing guitar in elementary school, first discovering the blues through the flagship bands of the British blues boom: John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, the Peter Green-led Fleetwood Mac, the Yardbirds, the Rolling Stones, and so on. He soon moved on to a wide variety of original sources, becoming especially fond of B.B. King and Freddie King. After high school, Ellis moved back to Atlanta in 1975 to attend Emory University, and soon found work on the local music scene, joining a bar band called the Alley Cats (which also featured future Fabulous Thunderbird Preston Hubbard). In 1981, Ellis co-founded The Heartfixers with singer/harmonica player Chicago Bob Nelson, and they recorded an eponymous debut album for the tiny Southland imprint. They soon signed with the slightly larger Landslide and issued Live at the Moon Shadow in 1983, by which point they were one of the most popular live blues acts in the South. However, Nelson left the group shortly after the album's release, and Ellis took over lead vocal chores.
The Heartfixers' first project in their new incarnation was backing up blues shouter Nappy Brown on his well-received 1984 comeback album Tore Up. Ellis debuted his vocals on record on The Heartfixers' 1986 LP Cool on It, which brought him to the attention of Alligator Records. Ellis left The Heartfixers to sign with Alligator as a solo artist in 1988, and they picked up his solo debut Georgia Blue for distribution. The album helped make Ellis a fixture on the blues circuit, and he toured heavily behind it, establishing a hard-working pattern he would follow for most of his career. The follow-up, Fanning the Flames, appeared in 1989 and explored similar territory. Released in 1992, Trouble Time helped land Ellis on album rock radio thanks to the track "Highwayman," but it was 1994's Storm Warning that really broke Ellis to a wider blues-rock audience, earning more media attention than any of his previous recordings; additionally, guitar prodigy Jonny Lang later covered Ellis' "A Quitter Never Wins" on Lie to Me. 
For 1997's Fire It Up, Ellis worked with legendary blues-rock producer Tom Dowd (the Allman Brothers, Derek & the Dominos), as well as Booker T. & the MG's bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn. Ellis subsequently left Alligator and signed with Capricorn; unfortunately, shortly after the release of 2000's Kingpin, Capricorn went bankrupt, leaving the album high and dry. Still, Ellis soon caught on with Telarc, releasing his initial disc Hell or High Water on the label in 2002, followed by The Hard Way in 2004. One year later, Ellis was back with Alligator, putting out the live set Live! Highwayman and 2007's Moment of Truth, the first studio album to contain original material since Hell or High Water. Ellis toured relentlessly behind the album, and reentered the studio in early 2009. Speak No Evil was released that October, but it would be another three and a half years before he issued another studio album, with Ellis choosing to focus on live performance for the intervening period.
When the all-instrumental Get It! did arrive in March 2013, it contained tributes to a number of his blues guitar heroes such as Freddie King, Bo Diddley, and Albert Collins. Before the end of the year he had also prepared another album with the same lineup as the Get It! sessions: Kevin McKendree on keyboards, Lynn Williams on drums, and Ted Pecchio on bass. Midnight Blue was released in January of 2014.
''MIDNIGHT BLUE''
JANUARY 13 2014
51:16
01 - If The River Keeps Rising/3:52
02 - Mouth Turn Dry/4:57
03 - Surrender/5:19
04 - It's Not Funny/4:24
05 - See No Harm/4:28
06 - The Only Thing/3:22
07 - Peace And Love/4:42
08 - Harder To Find/6:41
09 - That's My Story/6:42
10 - Kiss Of Death/7:09
All Tracks By Ellis
Tinsley Ellis/Guitar, Vocals
Kevin McKendree/Organ, Piano
Ted Pecchio/Bass Acoustic & Electric
Lynn Williams/Drums, Percussion
REVIEW
By Thom Jurek
Something happened to Tinsley Ellis' sound when he began his Heartfixer Music label. First there was the all-instrumental Get It! in 2013, that focused on the many sounds that make up the guitarist's arsenal. Sure electric blues was at the root, but hard rock, surf, R&B, and even pop played a role in its creation. The sound was warm, yet lacked none of the bite that Ellis had become famous for. Midnight Blue, Get It!'s follow-up, evidences the bluesman's return to more familiar terrain. The ten-song program commences with "If the River Keeps Rising," where Ellis comes out of the gate playing acoustic blues. His throaty baritone ominously offers its metaphorical warning through the first verse before the band comes careening in à la Led Zep's "When the Levee Breaks." It's loud, proud, and nasty. Ellis' slide work is spare but stinging. "Mouth Turn Dry" is modern electric blues driven not only by guitar but Kevin McKendree's rave-up B-3. "Surrender" is an emotive soul-blues that showcases just how fine a singer Ellis is when he wants to be. It also possesses a bumping bassline from Ted Pecchio (one of many), a cut-time shuffle by Lynn Williams (whose grooves throughout this album are infectious), and shimmering Rhodes and B-3 work from McKendree. Ellis' fills and solo cut the track wide open. It's a slow burner, but a deep one. Other highlights include the Ray Charles-inspired "See No Harm" and the crystalline yet biting, B.B. King-influenced "Peace and Love" (that distinguishes itself with a unique use of the wah-wah pedal). While "Harder to Find" begins with an acoustic piano, it starts to throb Hendrix-style with psych effects while remaining a 12-bar blues. "That's My Story" is a sonic bonfire; a funky, dirty boogie à la early ZZ Top. The set closes on the simmering "Kiss of Death," a slow blues that reveals Ellis and band's commitment to the Chicago Blues. It displays gorgeous melodic playing and a refusal to indulge in obviousness and exquisite taste. Midnight Blue is solid top to bottom, and is the finest studio album since 2005's The Hard Way.
BIOGRAPHY
By Steve Huey
A hard-rocking, high-voltage blues guitarist most often compared to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Tinsley Ellis is hardly one of the legions of imitators that comparison might imply. Schooled in a variety of Southern musical styles, Ellis draws not only from fiery Vaughan-style blues-rock, but also Texas bluesmen like Freddie King and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, the soulful blues of B.B. King, the funky grit of Memphis soul, and numerous other electric bluesmen. Ellis has been praised in many quarters for the relentless, storming intensity of his sound, and criticized in others for his relative lack of pacing and dynamic contrast (he's also been dubbed a much stronger guitarist than vocalist). Yet no matter which side of the fence one falls on, it's generally acknowledged that Ellis remains a formidable instrumentalist and a genuine student of the blues.
Ellis was born in Atlanta in 1957, and spent most of his childhood in southern Florida. He began playing guitar in elementary school, first discovering the blues through the flagship bands of the British blues boom: John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, the Peter Green-led Fleetwood Mac, the Yardbirds, the Rolling Stones, and so on. He soon moved on to a wide variety of original sources, becoming especially fond of B.B. King and Freddie King. After high school, Ellis moved back to Atlanta in 1975 to attend Emory University, and soon found work on the local music scene, joining a bar band called the Alley Cats (which also featured future Fabulous Thunderbird Preston Hubbard). In 1981, Ellis co-founded The Heartfixers with singer/harmonica player Chicago Bob Nelson, and they recorded an eponymous debut album for the tiny Southland imprint. They soon signed with the slightly larger Landslide and issued Live at the Moon Shadow in 1983, by which point they were one of the most popular live blues acts in the South. However, Nelson left the group shortly after the album's release, and Ellis took over lead vocal chores.
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